FaZe Clan is an esports organisation based in the United States that currently has teams Call of Duty, Overwatch, and Counter Strike: Global Offensive. They began as a YouTube sniping team before their first competitive roster in Black Ops II. They are the most subscribed eSports organization on YouTube with over 4 million subscribers.

Biography

The Beginning of FaZe

Their first roster was created consisting of Heist, Folsom, Secretly, and Sham to compete at the MLG Winter Championship.The team's expectations were unclear, however the team received significant support, thanks to the large fanbase already built up via YouTube. Their next roster to compete at the MLG Spring Championship was Heist, Methodz, Replays, and MBoZe. The team didn't manage to win the event, yet finished a respectable 5th place, taking home $2,300 collectively. Despite this, the roster got a complete reshuffle going into UMG Atlanta, as only Replays remained, to be joined by Slacked, Huhdle, and SpaceLy. This team struggled to gain any momentum, and dropped into the losers bracket of the tournament, following a loss to vVv Gaming in Round 4. Facing the tough task of going through the losers bracket to win the event, the team fell to Curse - finishing in a very disappointing 9th place. Despite this poor placing, the team decided to stick with the same roster going into the MLG PAX Prime Invitational. The team was able to make to the semifinals of the 8 team invitational, however were ultimately eliminated by the eventual runners-up, compLexity Gaming. To close out Black Ops 2, the team attended the 4 team MLG Fall Invitational. Again with the same roster, FaZe were unable to break the slump as they finished 4th place, winning no money from the tournament.

Call of Duty: Ghosts

With the launch of the new game, Call of Duty: Ghosts, FaZe decided a change was necessary and replaced Slacked with Classic, a personal friend of Replays. With the roster of Classic, SpaceLy, Huhdle, and Replays the team hoped to start the new season with a strong showing at the MLG Fall Championship. With the 8th seed, the team was tasked with having to face the tough European team, TCM Gaming. They were unable to match up with the Europeans and fell 3-1, dropping to the losers bracket immediately. The team still had an opportunity to prove themselves, but eLevate.VeXed halted this, as they knocked FaZe out with a 3-2 victory. This left FaZe with a Top-24 finish - the worst placement in the team's history. Following the dissapointing result, FaZe announced they would be making another major roster change. The team released SpaceLy and Huhdle, and replaced them with JKap and Methodz. JKap was regarded as one of the better Assault Rifle players in the game, and Methodz was on the inaugural roster from Black Ops 2.

The new roster was showing some promise while practicing, hoping to reverse the run of poor performances at UMG Philadelphia. Unfortunately for the team, they were given a tough bracket. They kicked off the event fiercely, knocking OpTic Gaming to the losers bracket with a 3-2 victory. However, the win set them up against compLexity Gaming. compLexity was the outright favorite for the event, having won the MLG Fall Championship, and the majority of events to close out Black Ops 2. FaZe put up a tough fight, but fell short losing 3-2. In the losers bracket, they matched up against Team Kaliber. Once more, the team gave it their all but fell short and lost 3-2 - landing them a 7th place finish. While the team didn't place in the money, the two teams they had lost to finished in 1st and 2nd respectively. FaZe's close games with both team's showed that the roster had some promise. Following this event, the Call of Duty Championship 2014 was announced and it was revealed that all players had to be at least 18 years old to compete. Because of this, the team had no choice but to release Methodz. Following UMG Philadelphia, the scene embarked on a 'roster-mania' with many organisations changing up rosters. NameLeSs was dropped by Curse LV and FaZe jumped at the opportunity to pick him up. However after a few weeks, ProoFy announced that he was leaving EnVyUs. Despite NameLeSs being a solid player, the team felt they could improve and decided to drop him in favor of ProoFy.

Following the roster changes, all eyes turned to the 2014 Call of Duty Championship where teams would be competing for $1,000,000. To qualify, FaZe first had to get through one of two online qualifiers and place in the Top 8. FaZe competed in first on February 1st, 2014, and went through the competition without relative ease. They defeated Curse NY 3-0 to secure their spot at the Call of Duty Championship 2014: US Regionals. Once again teams were required to finish in the Top 8 to qualify for the championship event. Despite a first round loss to Strictly Business, who would go on to win the regional event, the team was able to fight its way through the lower bracket and finish 4th place -securing their spot. At the championship event, the team was upset by Australian team Trident T1 Dotters in group stage, but were able to advance to bracket play with two big wins over SK Gaming and Aztek Gaming. They secured the 2nd seed in their group to set up a match with another Australian team, Team Immunity. They avoided another upset by defeating them 3-0, then beating out one of the top European teams, Epsilon eSports, by 3-1. Once again, FaZe were now faced tournament favorites compLexity. FaZe were unable to overcome their rivals, losing 3-1. The team still had a chance to win the event through the losers bracket, but lost their next match against Strictly Business 3-0. The team finished 6th place and walked away with $50,000. After the event, the organization decided to make some major roster adjustments. They announced ProoFy would be taking his own team with the creation of FaZe Black, Theory filling his spot on the previous team which would now be known as FaZe Red. To complete the FaZe Black roster, ProoFy was joined by 2 members of the previous team, Censor and Saints, along with FormaL joining from Team KaLiBeR. Upon creation, the team was labelled a "God Squad", and possibly the team capable of dethroning the dynastic compLexity (now known as Evil Geniuses). Unfortunately, after a few weeks, ProoFy left the team to fill the void at OpTic Gaming, after MBoZe was given his own team in OpTic Nation. This left FaZe Black looking for one and the spot was taken by Dedo, who had teamed previously with Censor and Saints. At the time, the MLG Ghosts League Season 2 was announced in which the FaZe Red team kept their spot due to competing in Season 1, however FaZe Black was not given a spot at first due to the roster changes. Even though 3 members of FaZe Black had competed on Strictly Business, the organization was given the spot, not the individual players. After a few days, MLG changed these rules and invited FaZe Black to compete in the league.

With the rosters finally settled, the teams began their practice for UGC Niagara. Both of the FaZe teams were hoping to have strong showings, but unfortunately the event took a turn for the worst for FaZe Black, before it had even started. Saints announced that he would not be attending the event, leaving the team one day to find a replacement. They were able to pick up Saintt at the last minute, but they had lost their Championship Bracket spot and were going to have to play through the open bracket. The FaZe Red team meanwhile had the 5th seed and were in a good position. Despite the roster change, FaZe Black were able to make it through the open bracket, fighting all the way to a 5th/6th place finish, losing to OpTic Nation. They were able to defeat Strictly Business in the consolation game to secure 5th place and finish in the money. FaZe Red didn't perform nearly as well, as they were dropped to the Losers bracket following a 3-2 loss to EnVyUs and then lost the subsequent macth in the losers bracket to Team KaLiBeR, eliminating them from the tournament and finishing in the 9th-12th position.

Roster Troubles

Much later in to the life cycle of Call of Duty: Ghosts, FaZe saw yet another roster change; this time a result of personal issues between teammates. Parasite, who had a reputation of being less than respectful to teammates and fans, and Censor, as team captain, found himself uncomfortable with this Parasite's behavior. He chose to intervene and bench the player. Shortly, after much tribulation Censor's actions are quickly undone as Dedo is traded to Evil Geniuses in exchange for a temporary loan of Karma, and Parasite is back in play. Apathy and Censor, alongside FaZe management, agreed with the decision to bench Parasite in the first place, and worked things out behind the scenes to get him back into the MLG League as a part of FaZe.

Advanced Warfare

As yet another Roster Mania went down, FaZe were a part of the action. With Karma only on a loan contract and Parasite also departing in an attempt to re-form Impact, Censor and Apathy were left looking for two. They were eventually able to recruit ACHES and SlasheR, and attended MLG Columbus in search of a championship. FaZe started well, going 3-1 in their pool to advance into the winners bracket. However, on Saturday night disaster struck, as ACHES cut his hand severely, requiring overnight hospital attention. However, even with stitches in his hand ACHES was determined to continue his streak of winning the first event of every new CoD title. But their chances were all but diminished, after ACHES appeared to struggle as they were swept 3-0 by Prophecy, dropping them into the losers bracket. However, they bounced back incredibly, beating Denial, Team KaLiBeR and winning the rematch against Prophecy, making it to the grand finals to face OpTic Gaming. In the finals FaZe were able to pull off the seemingly impossible, winning two best of 5 series to win MLG Columbus and $10,000. Notably with Censor picking up three kills in the final round of the game 5 Search and Destroy. FaZe looked to take this momentum into UMG Orlando, but doubts were beginning to emerge before the event due to the team's constant arguing in practice. Many still felt that the player's skill alone would lead them to another successful placement. Unfortunately however, FaZe started very poorly, finishing 1-3 in their pool, and headed into losers bracket, where they would need an incredible run to repeat their success at Columbus. They took victory over Rise, but fell to EnVyUs in a thrilling 5 map series, finishing with a very disappointing placement of 13-16th.

About halfway through the first 2015 Season, Censor stepped down as captain, with the title handed over to ACHES. Soon after, ACHES decided to trade Huke (substitute), Censor and Apathy, for Parasite from Prophecy, and Enable and Faccento from Team JusTus.

New Squad and New Success

As the AW season continued, a deal was struck between FaZe and Denial eSports. FaZe reportedly found that Huke and Slasher were unsettled at FaZe, and had been shopping themselves to other teams. Consequently, the organization traded the pair, for CoD Champions Clayster and Attach. The deal established FaZe as a top 3 team, with the new squad achieving strong placing in the Pro League, as well as multiple LAN event wins. The first of which was UMG Dallas 2015, where the new squad beat fan favorites OpTic 3-0. However, Faze were only getting started, soon after, the squad traveled to Europe to compete at the prestigious Gfinity. Prior to the tournament, many players noted the significance of the tournament, stating it was the next biggest tournament behind CoD Champs and X Games. FaZe advanced through the tournament with ease and were pitted once again against OpTic gaming in the final. However, unlike last time, OG were not as fatigued and managed to get out to a 3-0 lead in the best of 7. However, FaZe completed the near impossible yet again and made the 4-3 comeback to win the event. The squad were considered the new dominant team, and many expected another win at UMG D.C. However, things transpired after the team lost to a in form JusTus Squad 3-0. Faze lost finished pool play 3-1, but with an inferior map count to JusTus and EnVy, and fell into the losers bracket. They were able to pull out a few wins, but eventually lost to a surprising ISO squad. Doubts resurfaced about the FaZe team, but were such doubts were eradicated when they won the Season 3 Playoffs. At the MLG World Finals, FaZe would finish pool play with a stellar 4-0 record, placing them against Elevate, who they lost to 4-1, sending FaZe down to the losers bracket. Here they first faced off against iSolation eSports, and Dream Team, winning the matches 3-2 and 3-1 respectively. FaZe then played against Denial eSports, where they would fall 3-1, placing 5th-6th at the event.

Black Ops 3

FaZe retained their roster going into the Black Ops 3 season, and were invited to Totino's Invitational, a single elimination tournament taking place a week and a half after the game’s release. FaZe fell short to Team Kaliber in the first round, losing 2-0, eliminating them from the tournament with a 5th-8th finish. Unfortunately, this set a precedent for the rest of Black Ops 3 for FaZe. Next, they were invited to the Invitational CWL Stage 1 Qualifier. Placed in group A, alongside the returning compLexity, albeit with a new roster, Happy Hour, and the former OpTic Nation roster, now simply known as Nation. FaZe won both their matches against Happy Hour and compLexity, granting them a spot in the upcoming CWL Stage 1 NA Online League.

Mid-way through Stage 1, FaZe attended UMG South Carolina 2016, where they fell victim to the single elimination Game 7, losing to a determined Team Liquid in the quarterfinals, giving FaZe another disappointing finish. FaZe completed Stage 1 with a 15-7 record, securing the #3 seed for the Stage 1 Playoffs. In the first round, they came up against compLexity yet again, sweeping them 4-0. However, FaZe’s victory was short lived, after their match up against a strong Rise Nation, where they lost 4-0, placing 3rd-4th. The FaZe Clan then travelled to Paris to compete at ESWC 2016. They finished the group stage with a flawless record, sweeping PuLse Gaming and Exertus eSports for a spot in the playoffs. However, as they had experienced numerously already throughout the season, they fell short in the first round, losing 0-3 against an strong Splyce roster, placing 5th-8th.

At MLG Anaheim Open 2016, FaZe exited pool play with a disappointing 1-2 record, sending them to the losers bracket, where they began an almost legendary losers bracket run. First defeating Echo Fox 3-1, then pulling off the reverse sweep against two of the best EU teams at the time, Splyce and Infused. The outlook was positive for FaZe, but they lost 3-1 to Rise for a 4th place finish. FaZe completed the controversial Stage 2 with a 13-9 record, securing the third seed to face Dream Team at the Stage 2 Playoffs. However, FaZe yet again disappointed, losing to Dream Team in Game 7, for another 5th-8th finish. At MLG Orlando Open 2016 FaZe finished pool play with another flawless 3-0 record. However, recent history was to repeat itself, as they were beaten into the losers bracket, where they progressed until facing the in form Team EnVyUs, taking yet another 4th place finish.

2016 CWL Championship

The FaZe Clan qualified for the 2016 Call of Duty World League Championship - the biggest tournament ever played in Call of Duty at that time. FaZe performed excellently in pool play, not dropping a single map going into the winners bracket. Their performances continued in bracket play, defeating Team Infused 3-0 in the first round. The team had high expectations going into Day 3, however they were sent into the losers bracket, again by eventual winners EnVyUs. FaZe came up against Millenium, with MiRx in place of Swanny, as the latter was unable to attend the event. FaZe won the series 3-1, to set up a match against Splyce once more. The match went to an intense Game 5 Search and Destroy, which FaZe lost 6-2. FaZe finished the championship event in 7th-8th, netting them $50,000 in prize money.

Infinite Warfare

FaZe started the Infinite Warfare season well, winning the PlayStation Experience Invitational. This event was not attended by many of the top North American team's however, such as OpTic on 2016 champs EnVyUs. Regardless, FaZe had shown they were comfortable with the new Call of Duty title, and their outlook for the season looked bright. At the first major event of the year, CWL Las Vegas, the team performed well again, beating OpTic and Splyce 3-1, to reach the the semi-final against Rise Nation. FaZe lost the match 3-1, placing them in losers bracket. They defeated Allegiance 3-1, before ultimately falling to Cloud 9 3-2 in a close match, placing FaZe 3rd at the event. FaZe performed worse at the next event, CWL Atlanta, only managing a 5-6th finish, after losing to OpTic Gaming for the first time in an elimination match at a LAN event since Advanced Warfare. The team faired better at CWL Paris, reaching the final where they again faced OpTic. The match got off to a false start, with technical issues forcing a stop to the first Hardpoint, while FaZe were up 42-13. However after the restart, OpTic won the match with a convincing 3-0 scoreline, consigning FaZe to 2nd place.